


trouble (always seems to find us)

by blawky



Series: origins [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: All ships are background ships, F/F, Gen, M/M, archive warnings may change but probably won't, non-overwatch hero pov for first chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 18:40:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15467574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blawky/pseuds/blawky
Summary: Potential breaches of morality aside, Blackwatch was, quite possibly, the best in the business when it came to sting operations. Each one of their members had talent and ingenuity, and together, they worked like a well-oiled machine. It was one of the many reasons Gérard had contacted them to help them strike back at Antonio after the Oslo attack. Jack had been against it, so Gérard had outsourced, so to speak.





	trouble (always seems to find us)

**Author's Note:**

> thank you everyone for reading! this fic will chronicle the events that transpired from the rialto manor attack featured in uprising to the fall of overwatch, including the king's row uprising. there are currently 11 chapters planned, though that number may change depending on how much content fits into each chapter without getting clunky! currently, all relationships are considered background, but there will be a few scenes for each! the only relationship that will have a chapter dedicated to it is the lacroix marriage! i actually wrote this story a few months ago and never published, since i didn't have my ao3 account. 
> 
> huge thanks to everyone who beta read for me!

“Jack, this has to be done.” Gabriel’s face remained frozen in that same dangerous neutrality, and it was nearly impossible to tell his impression of the situation at hand. The three behind him were Genji Shimada, the cyborg assassin under Gabriel’s employ, Moira O’Deorain, the strange scientist -- such a startling contrast to Angela Ziegler -- who seemed to remain silent whenever Gérard was around, and Jesse McCree, who Gérard knew absolutely nothing about, aside from the fact that he spoke with a distinct southern drawl, and always seemed to have his hand on his revolver.

Gérard trusted none of them, despite supporting this particular endeavor. However, he knew Gabriel had Overwatch’s, and the world’s, best interests at heart. Most of the time.

Jack’s face through the holovideo was similarly passive, but the beginnings of anger glittered in his eyes. 

“My policy has always been that I don’t ask about your operations, Reyes, more out of plausible deniability than anything, but I do have to ask why one of _my_ agents,” he emphasized this with a glare in Gérard’s direction, “is opening a new Blackwatch headquarters in Venice.” 

Gérard took the opportunity to speak up, though that earned him a slight glower from Gabriel. Maybe. It was so hard to tell.

“We’re opening up the headquarters to watch Antonio Bartalotti, sir.” Jack fell silent at that, his expression growing contemplative. 

“That was off the record,” Gabriel countered evenly, “and Gérard is simply here on a vacation. Italy is beautiful this time of year, Jack.” Gabriel pushed a button, and suddenly Jack’s visage disappeared from the screen, and his attention snapped towards Gérard.

“Might I remind you, Lacroix, that you’re here to help Blackwatch, and you’re being keyed in out of necessity? Commander Morrison has always retained his policy of plausible deniability, meaning that I only fill him in on my movements when I absolutely have to, and even then I omit plenty. Do you have any idea what telling him our target could potentially do, if he’s brought before any court to ask us about our involvement in Antonio Bartalotti’s potential downfall, which will undoubtedly be investigated?”

“He’s a Talon operative, not a poli-” O’Deorain calmly raised a hand, silencing Gérard. Her cold, monotonous voice carried over towards him with startling clarity, despite her distance. 

“Antonio may be a Talon operative, but he has high reach with European governmental officials. I do not need to remind you that we are no longer in the States, yes?” Her gaze was full of disdain, presumably to match her pompous tone.

“I’m not a statesman, O’Deorain. I’m fully aware of European politics.” 

“Good for you,” she intoned, before motioning towards Gabriel. Reyes nodded, and leveled his gaze back on Gérard. 

“While we appreciate your help, Lacroix, we need to maintain a certain level of subtlety, especially when dealing with European high-rollers like Antonio. He has allies beyond just Talon, mainly due to the weapon proliferation operations he seems to always have his hands in.” Gérard nodded, realizing that Reyes had a point. This time, anyways.

The Shimada man moved towards Reyes, and said something in a thick accent that Gérard could barely hear. Gabriel nodded, and suddenly the man was leaving, speaking quickly towards Jesse, the only one who had yet to say anything at all. 

That was quickly assuaged when he stepped up towards the table that Gabriel and Gérard stood by. 

“We’re operating out of this safehouse until the headquarters is established, but this ain’t no place to run a full-scale op. We need a stable headquarters if we want to maintain full investigation on Antonio and the fellas who work for him, but we ain’t got one just yet, so we’re gonna be stuck to the basics.” Jesse’s hand hovered near his revolver even as he said that, his gaze watching the room with a mild level of unease.

“I’ve dealt with his type before. Arms dealers always got something up their sleeves, Reyes. We need to watch our back a whole lot more than we do with our usual hits. Got friends in very high places, if our intel’s correct.” 

Gabriel nodded. “Genji is casing Antonio’s manor from above, just to give us an idea what we’re dealing with, and see if we can recognize anyone, or find any possible leverage to end this before it gets messy.” 

Gérard could appreciate Gabriel’s methods, if nothing else. He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, but it was obvious that he’d prefer things to be quick and bloodless. Some part of Gérard wondered if that wasn’t for Jack’s sake, to spare him the extra headache and potential legal issues. Or he just preferred doing things the easiest way, but Gabriel didn’t exactly strike him as someone who particularly cared about how something got done, so long as it was done. 

As Gérard pondered, Gabriel messed with the controls to the holovideo. Moments later, after pressing one of the buttons on the table, a video feed of Genji’s movements came up. 

Moira had put on one of the headsets, and had sat down in one of the chairs at the table, watching the screen intently. She seemed to be offering Genji advice and analyzing his movements, while Jesse looked over at Gérard and raised a finger to his lips, motioning for silence. He punctuated the unspoken sentence with a wink, and a lopsided grin. 

“Stay near the edges of the rooftop, Genji. We have no idea what sort of defenses our dear friend Antonio has, but given his career choice, they will not be scant. If you’re spotted, you remember the procedure, yes?”

Genji’s voice rang out over the communication system in the room. “Yes, Moira. I am to immediately get to cover, wait five minutes, and, if there’s no activity near me, I get to go back to headquarters. Very exciting.”

Moira rolled her eyes. “Good. Advance towards the rooftop.” She turned to Gabriel after giving the order, and spoke in a hushed tone. Gérard could just barely make out her words.

“Do we have access to the street cameras near Antonio’s manor?” Gabriel shook his head, and O’Deorain huffed. 

“Damn. You do realize he’s walking in almost entirely blind, yes? Even I don’t like these odds.” Moira’s tone still held that pompous, playful tone, and she inspected her nails as she spoke.

“We need to case this place, Moira, and Genji’s the only one of us who can do it quick enough to possibly avoid alerting Antonio and his friends.” 

“Friends would be a loose term. All of his acquaintances are business partners, which means that it’s possible they can be leveraged. I told you we could try to buy them out first.” She ran a hand through her hair, leveling Gabriel with a disappointed look. Reyes either didn’t notice, or didn’t care. Likely the latter.

“We don’t have the kind of budget for me to authorize that, O’Deorain, and I also don’t want to. At all.”

Moira returned her attention to the screen, and shrugged her shoulders. Genji had now progressed onto the rooftop, from what Gérard could see, and he was now moving slowly across the surface. Gérard made out a large garden area, spotted with beautiful fountains and flowers. It was a nice property, all things considered. Maybe Gérard could get his hands on it after this was all over and Antonio was dead. 

He hadn’t expressed that private wish to Gabriel, but he was hoping he could strike a real blow to Talon by killing Antonio. The Blackwatch agents seemed to all be in agreement that Antonio was better alive than dead, and that he could provide valuable insight, but Gérard didn’t see the use in keeping a weapons dealer alive and well when there were people being killed as a result of his career choices. 

 

Nonetheless, Gérard was nearly certain that the Blackwatch agents, particularly McCree and O’Deorain, would not share his particular interests. Gérard had long been spearheading efforts against Talon and their affiliates, but that didn’t mean that he got a free pass with Blackwatch as to how to deal with them. They’d been doing it for just as long, he wagered, even if he wasn’t keyed in on every single movement they made. 

Perhaps he could manipulate Reyes, though. The man had always had a bit of a vicious streak, especially when something stood in his way, and it was possible that Gérard could convince him.

“Gérard,” O’Deorain said, her soft baritone pulling him out of his reverie, “have you dealt with Antonio before this? Anything at all could be useful to us.” 

A light shake of his head made the woman sigh, before Gérard saw her attention snap back towards the screen, as if detecting something.

“Genji, I’m detecting movement near your position. Lay low.” The assassin didn’t respond, but rather, Gérard watched as the Shimada boy ducked behind a crate, going completely still. It was almost surreal, Gérard thought, to watch a human -- perhaps cyborg is a better term -- freeze entirely, like a spider laying in wait.

Spiders had always made Gérard a bit nervous, and his wife, Amélie, was far more afraid of them than he was. The way they went entirely still when preparing for a kill bothered Gérard more than he cared to admit, and Genji’s movements were eerily similar. He pushed thoughts of spiders from his head as movement flashed on the screen. 

Two Talon soldiers stood less than three feet away from Genji’s cover, and if they saw him, they’d certainly raise the alarm. 

Shimada drew two shurikens.

The rightmost Talon soldier turned his head a minute fraction.

Everyone in the room was now holding their breath, watching as Genji was preparing to make the move that would either make or break their entire operation. Every one of his movements would have to be carefully calculated, because if they weren’t, Antonio would be alerted of the surveillance, and Genji would have the entire manor’s forces converging on him.

Shimada was good, but Gérard doubted even he was good enough to evade that many people. 

And then, like some sort of serpent uncoiling, Genji was over the crates, each shuriken flying through the air.

The Talon soldiers brought their guns up, fingers tracing the triggers.

They fell without a sound, and Genji landed a few feet in front of them. The Shimada boy no longer held his shurikens in his hand, but instead had one hand placed on the hilt of his sword, which Gérard recognized as a wakizashi, the other twitching through the air. 

“I’m not detecting any further movement, Genji. Have you gotten a proper casing of the manor?” 

He didn’t respond to O’Deorain’s comments at first, and she stared at his form on the screen, as if compelling him to say something, but the assassin simply nodded his head once. His nerves were shot, Gérard wagered, and he didn’t want to chance another encounter like that. 

“Return to the safehouse, then.” In seconds, he was off the rooftop, taking off into the night scene of Venice. O’Deorain discarded her headset, sighing, and Gérard could practically feel the relief radiating off of her slender form. 

“Commander, having Genji go in was a big risk, you know.” Jesse’s voice pierced the odd silence that had settled over the group after Genji’s departure from Antonio’s manor. 

Just as Reyes was about to respond, Moira shot up and snatched the headset. 

“Genji, get back to the manor right now.” 

The Shimada boy stopped. “Why?” Annoyance was thick in his voice, but not enough to outright disobey the order, or rather, _advice_. 

“You didn’t dispose of the soldier’s bodies. We’ll raise suspicions with them disappearing enough, but if those bodies are discovered, Antonio will either up his security or flee the manor entirely, and then our progress here will be ruined. _Especially_ if he notices that Gérard is coincidentally opening a headquarters here, just weeks after the Oslo attack. Go quickly. You’ll have night cover for a few more hours, and that should be more than enough time.” 

Gérard was a little shocked that Reyes had barely spoken up, but a look at the man showed him why. He was deep in thought, analyzing the scans and feeds that Genji had picked up. Gérard wagered that he was establishing a plan of attack, should it become necessary. They hadn’t yet decided to move in on the residence, but Gérard was willing to bet they would, soon enough, especially given all the casing they were conducting. 

“I’m on it,” was Genji’s quick reply, before he disappeared back into the rooftops. Gérard was still mildly impressed at the small tracking drone, made by Törbjorn Lindholm, Overwatch’s chief engineer, that allowed them to watch Genji from above. Lindholm and Angela Ziegler had been able to modify the drone to allow it to track biosignatures as well, which is how Moira was able to spot the soldiers before they had arrived. The drone was small enough to be easily overlooked, and could hide in vantage points to disguise itself if necessary. Lindholm had yet to figure out how to enable a cloaking mechanism that would remain permanent, but he claimed to be working on it. Shimada also had a video feed in his visor, just above where his eyes were. 

As Genji moved across the rooftops, Gérard slid into one of the chairs around the table, watching the video feed. Everyone, minus Reyes, had returned to watching the screen with bated breath as Genji dashed through Venice, and O’Deorain appeared to be deep in thought as she regarded the feed. 

“Once you’ve reached the bodies, get them behind the same crate that you used for cover, and allow me to scan the premises. If all is clear, move the bodies to the river that you saw earlier, where we plan to establish an extraction point, if we ever move on the residency.”

Genji responded with a nod, and leaped up onto the edge of the manor. Thankfully, the bodies were still there, and the drone’s scan didn’t appear to register any other biological beings nearby. 

“You’re clear,” O’Deorain said as she watched the screen.

The man moved towards the two bodies, carefully dragging them behind the cover. Moira pushed a button, and the scan suddenly extended, running a course along the entire wall in front of Genji. Six different figures dotted the zone, each one appearing to be a standard Talon foot-soldier, just like the ones Genji had eliminated. 

As Gérard watched O’Deorain run her scan, he noticed Jesse staring suspiciously at her, and remembered Jack off-handedly saying that McCree had been against hiring the enigmatic scientist, but that they’d gone through with it nonetheless. To Gérard, it seemed that Jesse was the so-called second in command of Blackwatch, given that he seemed to work the most with Reyes, and had the most personable relations with him. Gérard pushed the thought aside for now, choosing instead to focus back on what Moira was beginning to say.

“Genji, there are six Talon soldiers on the wall in front of you. I’ve marked each of their locations on the feed in your visor.” Moira hesitated, and then, an idea must have struck her. She leaned down excitedly, tapping away at the controls.

“Ignore our former plans of dumping the bodies into the river. It’s too hard for you to get yourself and two bodies all the way there, so I’ve a better idea. Strip both men of their armor, right down to their underwear.” Genji immediately obliged, methodically removing the Talon armor from each soldier, and laying it out. None of the living soldiers had moved yet, which meant that Genji had plenty of time to do whatever it was O’Deorain was planning. 

“Good. Now, grab one of the bodies, and make your way down the wall. There’s a waterfront outside the walls. Take each body to the waterfront and dump them into the water there, then make your way back up the wall for the armor. Do the same with the armor pieces, but not in the same spot.” 

Once Genji had begun, Moira tapped her headset, temporarily muting it. Reyes glanced up for a moment, furrowing his brows.

“I see you’re enjoying some light reading,” she remarked, a sly grin crossing her lips. 

Reyes’s biting reply back was lost on Gérard as he began to think. 

Gérard kept an eye on the screen, but Genji seemed to be doing just fine. He’d deposited the first body, and was now getting rid of the second. When he was finished, he’d likely be returning to the safehouse, which meant that Gérard had very little left to do besides listen to the Blackwatch agents chatter amongst themselves, and stew in his own thoughts.

Mainly, Gérard’s thoughts were of Talon, and more specifically, Antonio. The bigwigs of Talon kept their associations in the shadows, but anyone who really wanted to know anything about Antonio could do a bit of digging and discover some semblance of a connection, he was sure. So why hadn’t anyone done anything? 

It was potentially out of fear: Antonio’s associates were high-rollers, and the other members of Talon were just as lethal, if not more, as he was, and many of them kept almost entirely to the shadows. If, and when, Antonio fell from glory, Vialli, one of his close allies, would likely take his seat at Talon’s inner council, and the cycle would continue. 

Nonetheless, dealing with Antonio came first. Before anything could happen, they had to isolate Antonio’s allies. Antonio was too well-protected for the team to attack him directly, but they could certainly isolate him most of his allies, if not all of them. 

“Overwatch can use the intelligence that we gather here on his allies to bring charges against them in a formal court. Antonio may be able to slip out of our grasp with his high reach, but I doubt that his lower level allies have the same connections he does.” Gérard was speaking mainly to himself, but he noticed that O’Deorain seemed to be listening to him. Jesse and Reyes were speaking in hushed tones near the back of the room, and Shimada had yet to make an appearance. 

“Now I see why Reyes brought you in,” Moira said, her eyes scanning him up and down. It made his skin crawl. 

“I should hope so. I didn’t come all the way to Venice just to be a limp fish, despite what you may think.” Gérard wasn’t entirely sure he really _wanted_ to be in a conversation with Moira, but at this point, he had no choice. One look at the screen told him Shimada was still a few minutes out, and Jesse and Reyes were still whispering to each other, gesturing towards the scan that Reyes had been inspecting while Genji was infiltrating the manor. 

“We’ll see.” Moira glanced back at the screen, and lifted the headset to speak to Genji. Gérard welcomed the distraction of Moira, and moved towards McCree and Reyes. 

Jesse shot him a curious glance, and both he and Gabriel abruptly stopped talking as Gérard moved within earshot. Gérard flashed them a sympathetic smile, as if apologizing for the perceived intrusion, and looked towards Reyes. 

“If Director Petras catches wind of the new headquarters, he’ll be getting in contact with Commander Morrison. You know that, right?” 

If looks could kill, Gabriel would have just murdered Gérard. 

“Not only do I not need Jack’s permission to conduct Blackwatch operations, Director Petras will be patched in to me if he decides to contact Commander Morrison.” Gérard knew it was a constant sore spot for Gabriel that Jack had been made the formal commander of Overwatch over him. 

Sometimes, he wondered if that was why Gabriel had taken lead of Blackwatch, and made it a point that it operated outside of Overwatch’s rules and legalities. It may be a fixture of Overwatch, but Blackwatch was very much so its own entity, and most, if not all, of its conduct was left entirely in the dark. Even Moira’s presence in the ranks was a well-kept secret: Gérard had only been looped in out of absolute necessity, and he’d been forced to agree that he wouldn’t speak a word of it to anyone. 

Potential breaches of morality aside, Blackwatch was, quite possibly, the best in the business when it came to sting operations. Each one of their members had talent and ingenuity, and together, they worked like a well-oiled machine. It was one of the many reasons Gérard had contacted them to help them strike back at Antonio after the Oslo attack. Jack had been against it, so Gérard had outsourced, so to speak.

His reverie was interrupted by the sound of a door opening. Gérard glanced to the side, just in time to see Genji walk through the door, rolling his shoulders. Reyes turned to look at the man as he entered, moving his head in an approving nod. 

“Nicely done, Shimada. The results of the scan have been invaluable so far.” He paused for a moment, smiling -- or at least, half-smiling -- towards Genji, before turning his gaze to the rest of the group and continuing.

“Using the scan, it’s relatively obvious to see that direct entry into the base is going to be extremely hard without alerting Antonio to our presence. The entire place is heavily guarded by Talon forces, and they’d either gun us down, or get Antonio out before we could even see the guy. Or both.” 

“Perhaps entry from the air would be a better idea,” O’Deorain said from her spot on one of the plush seats around the table. “We have skilled pilots that can get us onto the rooftops, and Shimada can be sent ahead to deal with any watchers before they can report back. After that, the rest of us can make our way in slowly. Antonio won’t know we’re there until we want him to.” Once the woman was done speaking, she leaned back in her chair, her eyes locking onto Gérard’s, and they reminded him, for a moment, of a snake’s: cold poison and lethality seeping into her irises. She smiled wolfishly at him, and turned her chair to look back at the screen. 

Gérard shifted from his spot near the wall, casting his gaze all around the room. Reyes was off to one side, speaking into his headset, while O’Deorain remained gazing at the screen, doing what Gérard could only guess was something nefarious. Genji and Jesse were off to one corner, speaking in low tones, and Gérard could swear he saw the hint of a smile turn up Jesse’s features as they spoke, and the strange cowboy chuckled. Gérard turned away, allowing the two to speak privately, and instead moved to focus intently on the screen. 

He had an ulterior motive behind all of this, a personal vendetta against Antonio for his attack on Oslo. Gérard had been injured in the attack, but more importantly, he’d lost friends and allies, and that simply wouldn’t stand. So when they brought Antonio in -- _if_ they managed to bring him in -- Gérard planned to find a way for some sort of accident to befall him before he could ever appear in a court of law, before he had a chance to pull any strings and worm his way out of prison, where he belonged. 

Gérard breathed in deep, his thoughts whirring about his head before he turned to leave the room, his hand turning the doorknob slowly. 

“Leaving so soon, Lacroix?” Moira’s voice slithered through the air, and Gérard turned to face the scientist, who had now risen from her seat, standing a few feet away from him. Her footsteps were silent, almost startlingly so, reminding him of his wife, Amélie, in the way she stepped without a sound. 

“I have business,” he said simply, and something dangerous danced through Moira’s eyes. 

“Fascinating. Well, enjoy your business,” she said, and turned as if to leave. Gérard turned to leave, only to have her voice cut through the space between them once more. 

“And Gérard?” Her voice was sweet, dangerously so. “Ensure you do not inform anyone of this mission, or of Antonio’s presence once we’ve captured him. I would hate for anything to happen to him -- or you -- because of your negligence.” 

Did she know? No, there was no way. Of course she didn’t know. 

Gérard neglected to respond and quickly opened the door, breathing in the perfumed air of the lobby outside the safe room.

Vengeance would come soon, he told himself.

Soon.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so so much for reading the fic! currently, i do not have a schedule for when each chapter should be up, but expect the next update to come before the end of august! if you want updates/to see when i publish new works, please follow my tumblr @ genjyeet.tumblr.com!


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